Chris Falco
2006-03-21 18:02:54 UTC
(screen shots are posted on my blog www.tinyurl.com/exv3)
I was watching the sneak preview of the PPT (profesional poker tour) and Greg
Raymer picked up 55. Known to the online poker world as Presto.
Greg even said "presto" at the world series of poker in 2004 when he held the
hand.
The text on the screen had some made up origin for the term presto, here is the
real history of presto.
The following text was taken from Pokermagazine.com, however, the same story is
told throughout poker groups on usenet.
-----
Pocket 5s had some obvious, but uninspired, nicknames (the speed limit, double
nickels) before it was gifted with the magical moniker "Presto." It started with
cards/probability expert Abdul Jalib posting some math problems on the newsgroup
rec.gambling. (His excellent essays on Hold 'em are collected here.) Jalib
frequently would skip a few steps that he considered unnecessary to mention when
describing a complex calculation.
A fellow poster named Steve Jacobs would write, "Presto!" to show where the
rigorous logical steps should be, as if "magic" had occurred instead. One
weekend Jalib and Jacobs happened to be in Vegas at the same time, along with
another newsgroup poster named Frank Irwin. Irwin pointed out Jalib to Jacobs,
and so Jacobs sat down at the blackjack table where Jalib was playing. Each time
someone at the table got blackjack, Jacobs shouted out Presto! Eventually Jalib
figured out his tablemate wasn't just a loudmouth tourist. The story was
recounted on the newsgroup, and suddenly the rec.gambling blackjack players were
calling "Presto!" when they hit a blackjack (along with the countersign "Irwin!"
in honor of the man who served as catalyst).
When the rec.gambling newsgroup split off a poker branch, the Hold 'em players
wanted to carry the Presto name with them. But there was no consensus about
which hand should get the honor: Pocket aces seemed an obvious choice (or
ace-king thru ace-ten, each of which make blackjack), but many of those hands
already had well-established nicknames. There were several threads on the
newsgroup detailing big wins with pocket fives, and there was a groundswell of
support that this hand should win the designation. Jalib himself posted about a
big win with 55, and later Steve Jacobs anointed pocket fives with the nickname,
and the new Presto was born.
------
So there is the truth, not some urban legend about a club at 55 victoria street
that no one seems to have any proof about.
The tiltboys (www.tiltboys.com) Also get a lot of credit for spreading the
presto knowledge around.
Also, I will state that playing 55 strong does reap large pots. I flopped quad
5's in a no limit game in Sept 2005 the day after this picture was taken.
www.tinyurl.com/exv3
_______________________________________________________________
Posted using RecPoker.com v2.2 - http://www.recpoker.com
I was watching the sneak preview of the PPT (profesional poker tour) and Greg
Raymer picked up 55. Known to the online poker world as Presto.
Greg even said "presto" at the world series of poker in 2004 when he held the
hand.
The text on the screen had some made up origin for the term presto, here is the
real history of presto.
The following text was taken from Pokermagazine.com, however, the same story is
told throughout poker groups on usenet.
-----
Pocket 5s had some obvious, but uninspired, nicknames (the speed limit, double
nickels) before it was gifted with the magical moniker "Presto." It started with
cards/probability expert Abdul Jalib posting some math problems on the newsgroup
rec.gambling. (His excellent essays on Hold 'em are collected here.) Jalib
frequently would skip a few steps that he considered unnecessary to mention when
describing a complex calculation.
A fellow poster named Steve Jacobs would write, "Presto!" to show where the
rigorous logical steps should be, as if "magic" had occurred instead. One
weekend Jalib and Jacobs happened to be in Vegas at the same time, along with
another newsgroup poster named Frank Irwin. Irwin pointed out Jalib to Jacobs,
and so Jacobs sat down at the blackjack table where Jalib was playing. Each time
someone at the table got blackjack, Jacobs shouted out Presto! Eventually Jalib
figured out his tablemate wasn't just a loudmouth tourist. The story was
recounted on the newsgroup, and suddenly the rec.gambling blackjack players were
calling "Presto!" when they hit a blackjack (along with the countersign "Irwin!"
in honor of the man who served as catalyst).
When the rec.gambling newsgroup split off a poker branch, the Hold 'em players
wanted to carry the Presto name with them. But there was no consensus about
which hand should get the honor: Pocket aces seemed an obvious choice (or
ace-king thru ace-ten, each of which make blackjack), but many of those hands
already had well-established nicknames. There were several threads on the
newsgroup detailing big wins with pocket fives, and there was a groundswell of
support that this hand should win the designation. Jalib himself posted about a
big win with 55, and later Steve Jacobs anointed pocket fives with the nickname,
and the new Presto was born.
------
So there is the truth, not some urban legend about a club at 55 victoria street
that no one seems to have any proof about.
The tiltboys (www.tiltboys.com) Also get a lot of credit for spreading the
presto knowledge around.
Also, I will state that playing 55 strong does reap large pots. I flopped quad
5's in a no limit game in Sept 2005 the day after this picture was taken.
www.tinyurl.com/exv3
_______________________________________________________________
Posted using RecPoker.com v2.2 - http://www.recpoker.com